TORONTO — The interim leader of Ontario’s Progressive Conservatives vowed Tuesday to clean up the party, “root out the rot” and ensure a fair leadership contest following the resignation of top leaders amid sexual misconduct allegations.

Vic Fedeli, who was appointed to his post last week following Patrick Brown’s departure, said he needed to focus on internal issues ahead of a spring election and would not seek to be permanent leader as initially planned.

“I have always believed we must put team before self. As such, I will work exclusively as interim leader to the party,” Fedeli said. “It’s time to put the party and the province ahead of any one person’s personal ambitions.”

Ottawa area MPP Lisa MacLeod has also decided not to run. She wrote in a tweet that she intended to focus on her new duties as finance critic. She was appointed to the post on Tuesday by Fedele.

The party has been in turmoil since last week when Brown resigned after vehemently denying sexual misconduct allegations reported by CTV News. The allegations have not been independently verified by The Canadian Press.

In October, Brown boasted of growing the party’s base to 127,000 members from about 10,000 following the Tories’ 2014 election loss. The number has since grown to 200,000.

“Frankly, I think I opened the party up to tens of thousands more who simply want a reasonable, thoughtful … modern, inclusive PC party,” he told The Canadian Press in an interview late last year.

Questions have been raised, however, about the party’s membership figures, which Fedeli said will be scrutinized through an analysis of the party’s membership rolls.

The interim leader has also ordered an overhaul of the party’s membership management system, which was hacked in early November.

“Fixing this, and it needs fixing, will be a massive undertaking,” he said. “But it is absolutely essential and absolutely doable if we’re to win the next election.”

The party is also working on establishing rules to govern its leadership race, announced by the party executive on Friday after a caucus recommendation to have Fedeli stay at the helm through the spring election.

Fedeli’s announcement Tuesday means there is only one candidate officially in the running — Toronto politician Doug Ford, brother of the city’s late former mayor Rob Ford.

The party has also been grappling with the departure of former president Rick Dykstra, who resigned Sunday, just hours after Maclean’s magazine published a report in which a woman alleged she was a young Conservative staffer in Ottawa when she was sexually assaulting by Dykstra in 2014, when he was an MP. The allegations have not been verified by The Canadian Press.

Meanwhile, the Progressive Conservatives have shuffled their critic portfolio Tuesday, with Fedeli saying he has appointed three of the party’s caucus members to new critic roles.

McLeod wis replacing Fedeli as the party’s finance critic. Lorne Coe will become the party’s education critic, a role previously held by Brown, and Lisa Thompson will become the party’s caucus chair. Fedeli said Thompson will play a key role in implementing a plan to strengthen workplace violence and harassment policies.

Fedeli, saying the party had been through a “chaotic time” in recent days, also vowed to tackle internal sniping.

“Our party has infighting already … We can’t have this,” he said. “We need to focus on the one true opponent.”

Party insiders said the infighting can be attributed, in part, to potential leadership candidates and their advisors jockeying for early position and favourable conditions ahead of the upcoming contest, which will be held by the end of March.

The party has been also been dogged by controversial nomination battles in ridings across the province, including allegations of vote-stuffing in races near Hamilton and Ottawa. In the riding of Hamilton West-Ancaster-Dundas police are currently investigating the PC nomination. The party eventually hired auditors from PricewaterhouseCoopers to oversee their nominations contests after complaints about the votes began to emerge.

Other potential leadership candidates include Caroline Mulroney, the daughter of former prime minister Brian Mulroney, former Postmedia executive Rod Phillips and PC energy critic Todd Smith who told a local media outlet in Eastern Ontario Tuesday he is considering a bid for the leadership.

Another Tory legislator considered a potential candidate — Monte Mcnaughton — said Tuesday he would not seek the top job.

Kevin Gaudet, a long time party member and organizer of the PC policy convention last fall, said he could understand why Fedeli has opted to focus on re-building the party.

“There’s a reason why, in almost every instance that I can think of, in a leadership race, an interim leader’s not allowed to run,” he said. “In this instance, there are a lot of things to do and he’s busy and it’s a contracted period of time.”

Gaudet said Brown’s sudden resignation, as well as the departure of former party president Rick Dykstra, has created a slew of challenges for Fedeli and the party.

“There’s factions, there’s parties, there’s interests, there’s policy and there’s a ticking clock,” he said. “I’m not surprised by that and I have every confidence that we’ve got smart and capable people with integrity involved in the process to take us forward.”

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Why would they run? They’ve figured out that the Ontario P.C.s have, once again, snatched defeat from the jaws of victory, and nobody with half a brain wants to have that ignominy attached to their name. They’re perfectly have to have Doug Ford be the loser. Oh, and that whole “extreme vetting” process they’ve promised? Who thinks Dougie and his, shall we say, entrepreneurial past will survive that?

Since McNaughton has stated that he will not run- I see the Christian right (as led by Charles McVety) has come out in full support of Ford.
Hilarious- and all based on the fact that he had a conversion moment and marched in their Anti-Abortion parade.
My God- it is an exact replica of the evangelicals in the US who support Trump- and forgive him his trespasses, for the same reason.
In other words- can we really believe that the conservatives will rally behind a graceless loudmouthed oaf with a shady past ?
I guess it is…
Pity.

I think Fedeli made a wise move. He is a smart and stable leader that is needed to run this caucus and make it election ready. I think that the PC party will also now dump their election platform and start over after all it is way to liberal like and there will be a want to distance themselves from anything Brown. I hope they decide to get rid of the carbon tax and I do believe that Ford will be putting forth a Conservative agenda that will make a true alternative to Wynn. I think the PC party has a very good chance to form the next government since people simply just had more than enough of Wynn and the liberals. If Ford is able to keep this clean he will be next Premier of Ontario!!